That's because before Obama took the presidency he was a romantic senator.

He promised change (case in point: closing gitmo) because he didn't know why we did the things that we did.

For me, Obama's greatest strongpoint is that he is willing to learn and listen to those around him (particularly his military advisors). He isn't a cowboy. He wanted to close gitmo- but then he learned more about it and realized that we still need GTMO.

From what I understood, when he tried to close it back in January 2009, it seemed like there was nowhere else for the prisoners to go. They belong in America (where, you know, we can't violate their rights as individuals) but no congressmen would allow them in their district.

That's pretty much what has been screwing him through his whole term. He promised a lot, maybe too much, but a lot of the stuff he wanted to do was shut down by congress. It seems to me that quite a few senators/representatives will automatically vote down anything he tries to do in an almost childlike contrary response.

It lays out like this: president promises things, tries to do things, opponents stop things, blame president for not doing things (even though it's their fault), profit.

WTF dude? We are supposed to be the land of the free and we have a prison located in Cuba (hilarious on its own) that tortures people and breaks international law. What kind of example are we setting for the rest of the world.

"I know exactly how to fix allmost of our problems, and so does every one of my fellow candidates. The problem is, if any of us made the painful changes required to fix things, none of you would ever vote for us again, and we like being employed."

i feel like its more of a 70-30 split between america and foreign nation/powers. in defense of america we do get called upon frequently to help in foreign conflicts and aid, but when we do come in and help people get mad at the U.S. for doing it their way but still within the confines of war principles set down by various conventions (ie Geneva). on the other hand mentality of world media to come up with juicy stories puts the bad eggs in the U.S. on display and runs the stories into oblivion.

TLDR america should still clean up its act concerning foreign policy but plenty of it is not really justified

"You know, I've been demonizing my opponent for quite a while now, basically implying that he will bring us all to ruin if he wins, but the reality is that at least 95% of the decisions I will make in office will be practically the same decisions he would have made had he won."

So there really is a button that is always ready to go with a simple push!

I always thought you had to make a few calls, and then they would need to be verified by another and then some codes would need to be entered by a few people at the same time and that opens access to the key hole to which you insert the key that you got from a safe using an encrypted combination that changes each minute and then you use that key and the other guy also uses his key at the exact same time, and one guy is all like, "on 3" and the other guy is like, "wait, is that one two three then go, or one two three/go?" and the first guy as all like, "we trained for this dude!" and the other guy is like, "i know but that training refresher course was a few days ago, and I have seen a few movies since then like Hunt for Red October and War Games, and that one with Chevy Chase in Syberia." and the first guy is all like, "I never saw that one, was it any good?" and the other guy is all like "I enjoyed it but Cheryl fell asleep half way through, she said it was dated." and the first guy is like "well, yeah it is dated. It came out in like 1985... Dan Aykroyd is in that too right?" and the other guy is like "Yeah, he played the smart straight laced type." and the first guy is like "You always need one of those so the non-crazy and non-fun type people can relate and have a character that anchors them to the plot." and the other guy is like "That is soo true!" and the first guy is like "You wanna launch these warheads and then go watch it on Netflix?" and the other guy is like "On 3" and the first guy is like "Hahahahah" and the other guy is like "See what I did there?"

"Now, there's one thing you might have noticed I don't complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky. They don't pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It's what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you're going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain't going to do any good; you're just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it's not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here... like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There's a nice campaign slogan for somebody: 'The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.'"

This. In a democracy you get the government you deserve. Most voters are more concerned over saving a dollar or abolishing abortion or "sticking it to minorities" than they care about good government or our future.

Well, you've only listed the problems that conservative Republicans have with the government now. Now, I understand that reddit is a primarily liberal website, but it's important to note that we've got equally futile and stupid left-leaning ideas.

Im pretty sure Jessie Ventura said this when he ran for governor. He was asked in a debate what he would do on some subject (I am too lazy to look this all up) and he said he didnt know. Everyone looked at him like he had two heads until he explained that he wouldn't be able to have an informed opinion on the subject until he was in office with all relevant information in front of him.

Any serious effort to balance the budget will come from these four things, and these four things alone. Everything else is peanuts and not worth talking about. Waste, fraud and abuse amounts to jack shit. Our budget is imbalanced because our taxes are low while we're paying for popular programs."

You'll never see a politician, particularly a Republican, talk about this.

That is one of my favorite clips of David Mitchell. My country's parties are also running on 'eliminating waste from departments X, Y, and Z'. They can't go into details of course. They don't want to get wonky on you.

Why? The elderly are a large voting block. Veterans are a large voting block. Rich folks have gotten lots and lots of tax cuts over the last 30 years are a happy to give kickbacks to the politicians (hey it is their money now).

As long as other demographics continue not to show up and be heard, the status quo will remain the same. Last presidential election only 63% of voters showed up and that was on the high side for modern elections. IMO voter apathy wins every election because you spell out the problem perfectly and no one can touch it because large blocks of voters vote for their own self interest. Nothing really surprising about people doing that, but the problem is the policies they are pushing are leaving younger folks with a big, fat unpaid tab. Sadly, no organization is speaking for them and it is mostly because they don't bother to show up and vote.

Alternately, "We're going to give you tons of shit, but we're not going to talk about how we're going to pay for it. Just vote for me and you'll get free shit. We won't slash and programs you care about, we're just going to magically fund things that we're going to tell you we're going to give you, so please vote for us."

You'll never see a politician, particularly a Republican, talk about this.

That's why I hate that people refer to Paul Ryan as this tough budget hawk who's willing to make tough decisions. 4 trillion in tax breaks (almost all of which go to the wealthy) and 1.7 trillion in government spending cuts (most of which from programs that aid the poor and disable. Military spending is increased.) isn't a bold new idea, it's the exact same idea they've always had. He's just not afraid to admit that he really only cares about the rich and military. If he could, he'd get rid of social security and medicare but he can't because the votes definitely aren't there.

Here's what a serious budget hawk would do. Come out explain to the people that our diet has sucked and we definitely need to shape up. We need to eat better, get rid of the crap in our diet (cut back and reform government programs, that includes cuts on popular programs) and exercise (increase taxes). Yes, it'll suck but it's for our own good.

We need to raise taxes on everyone. We need to reduce the size of the military (standing and otherwise). We NEED to end the involvement of corporate donations in elections. The Environment will be the destruction of us. Gas Subsidies need to end. We need to end the current Military complex. We need to end the Monroe Doctrine (thats a biggie) We need to build nuclear power plants EVERYWHERE. Stop Oil Drilling. Subsidize clean energy ventures. I am a married homosexual, with an adopted child. I am agnostic. By the way, I am announcing my intent to Run For the President of the United States. Vermin Supreme will be My VP.

If you're referring to the poverty level, it's a pretty meaningless amount by itself. It's just used as an adjusted way to scale when how certain benefits phase in. Like you might qualify for certain Medicaid benefits if you make less than 150% of the poverty level.

That way, they don't have to come up with different standards, all of which need to be inflation-adjusted, for every government program. If you think that anyone above the poverty level isn't poor, you're using it wrong.

At the time the USA was founded, there were an estimated 800 Million people living. Now, the world's population nears 7 Billion. Breakthroughs in healthcare and agriculture have sustained this population growth, but many aspects of these technologies aren't sustainable at current population levels, much less scalable for further growth. As the human population nears the Earth's carrying capacity, more resources must be spent on mere subsistence and less on reaching for the technological breakthroughs it will take to transcend our environmental limits. In a finite world, it is foolish to depend on technology arbitrarily expanding the Earth's capacity to support human life. In short, we must find a way to limit the world's population growth, but in a way that preserves and delivers humanity and dignity for all mankind.

We have become a culture of shortsightedness, but even though these problems will manifest in the future, that future is not remote.

The worlds population growth (growth, not population) is actually decreasing, especially in industrialized nations. People aren't having 8-12 children anymore because it costs too much to support them in an industrialized nation. The media loves a good doomsday story so they hype it up and blow it out of proportion. Like any organism, a population will reach equilibrium with the resources in the environment without the need of massive population controls.

"We need to reduce spending and increase taxes in order to balance the US federal budget. If we don't reduce our debt, we will continue to require the sale of our debt to foreign investors, and the negotiations to allow that could allow for further trade deficits and continue down the road of insolvency. The only way to avert financial disaster in the future is to endure some pain right now."

"My opponent and I might sound like we'll do things differently, but in fact we'll both sign in bills that promote frivolous spending and give tax breaks to the wealthy and big business all while printing more money which will devalue the money you currently have."

Would you like to get fucked by the red dick or the blue dick America? I have no earthly idea why we all seem to think there's a difference.

The United States can no longer afford to be the world leader. We're going broke. We need to sell off the aircraft carriers and jets to our allies, and downsize to maybe two aircraft carriers and about 1/5 of the military power. Sorry, everyone. The credit card bills are not affordable.

Other countries: We're pulling all of our troops out. You're on your own.

Of course we're not. We're all fucking human beings. Things that fundamentally appeal to human beings fundamentally appeal to most, if not almost all, human beings.

Everyone wants to be part of something greater than themselves. For most, that means country, or religion. Others congregate around the lack of those things. Still others choose something abstract, or just make their own shit up.

You need to be reminded that you're not so different. In fact, you're not different at all. The entire world would work better if you realized that, had you been born in Russia, you'd believe everything the Russians do. You aren't magically the person you are thanks to existing - you're a product of your environment and your culture.

You're not different or special, you just exist. The sooner you learn that you're absolutely not superior to other human beings, the sooner we can stop dicking around in this shitty little sandbox and start doing important things.

The only thing that should make you cringe is the realization that you've bought into the bullshit culture wars.

also related to the founding fathers: "We should not base the policies of a modern country on what we think slave owning patriarchs from the 18th century would want us to do." The cult surrounding them (from both sides of the aisle I might add) is pretty obnoxious

To be fair, some of the founding fathers' policies would still be considered progressive, or ultra left, if they were presented today. Them being dead for 200 years hasn't made those policies any more stodgy or old fashioned.

Maybe not so much on the slavery and women's lib issues, but other issues, sure.

I like when politicians have "forced" race relation photo ops like Obama getting a beer with the black harvard profesor and the white policeman, and when Romney has some black guy stand behind him at a speaking event.

Rape is always the fault of the rapist. Victims of rape should not be made to feel that if they made different choices then they would not be a victim, because in so doing we perpetuate the misconception that victims of rape are even partly responsible for the crime committed against them.

"No matter who you vote for, we're going to continue the same basic policy of catering to the wealthy elite. Social issues are a smokescreen to distract you from the real issues at hand. Most of us could give two shits if you have health care or are able to get abortions; we're concerned about maintaining our power structure and we'll do anything to achieve this goal."

"Voting for Me for President on the basis of my stated domestic policies is profoundly ignorant. My campaign is mostly about foreign policy and other things which you don't really care about. You should pay more attention to whoever is running for Mayor in your city."

" I could easily either make it so every single one of you will never worry about money, food or healthcare for the next year or two but afterwards every other country will be more powerful then America. I could also make your life a miserable hell for a year or two and then it will slowly get better but your children will have a future. But Instead I am going to do something in the middle which only separate the rich and the poor leaving the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, but the middle class will still worry about money but can survive.

Hardly anyone does, it's not the kind of thing American history classes teach. I work pretty closely with Native American organizations and personally know dozens of people that were raised and abused in boarding schools. It was nothing less than an all out effort to wipe out an entire culture.

The federal government set itself up as the middle man for leases on Indian land. This includes oil, gas, coal and grazing fees. All monies collected go into Indian trusts and and are paid out from there. Except that billions and billions of this money is missing.

For more than a century, Indians have been trying to get an accounting of Indian trust fund money. Finally, they filed a lawsuit. Upon pressure from congress, Arthur Anderson did an audit of the federal government management of the trust and was only able to resolve some tribal account info over a short time span ... the individual accounts were so screwed-up that it'd cost hundreds of millions just to begin untangle them.

Former Representative Albert G. Bustamante said, "If this happened in Social Security, I tell you there would be a war."

John McCain commented, "Trustees receive and disburse funds all the time for other Americans, and if they blow it they pay. In this case it's the Native Americans who are rightfully owed the money and the federal government who will be forced to compensate for their loss."

The director of the Minerals Management Service William Bettenberg told the appropriations committee he was aware that hundreds of millions of dollars that belonged to Indians was going uncollected from oil royalties EACH YEAR."

Just a few months ago, the Obama Administration agreed to a settlement of $3.4 Billion (yet to be approved.) Although, that sounds like a lot, the plaintiffs (and observers) believe well over $100 Billion is unaccounted for. And out of that $3.4 billion, only $1.4 billion is going to settle claims.

The remaining $2 billion is to repurchase land that's ownership has been getting exponentially more messed-up.

At the turn of the century, the U.S. used the Dawes Act to keep Indian tribes from holding land in common. Land was allotted to individual Indians. After 25 yrs, it was supposed to turn into regular fee simple ownership just like for all other Americans. Not only did this not occur, the Gov't even imposed rules on how the land was inherited. An individual allotment passed to all descendents of the individual. The passage of time has resulted in ridiculous situations where one tract of land might be owned by over 400 people. Management of this fractionalization costs taxpayers big time.

There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number 4 in labor force and number 4 in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real and defense spending – Where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined; 25 of whom are allies…..So when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. Yosemite?! We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right, we fought for moral reasons, we passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chest. We built great, big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men, aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it. It didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election and we didn’t scare so easy. We were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed by great men, men who were revered. First step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one. America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.” – Will McAvoy

Not only that, it's preaching to the choir. No Tea Partier or even serious Republican would leave that show turned on for more than 15 minutes. It's a show to help reinforce liberal ideas to liberals. It never even tries to seriously present conservative viewpoints, except perhaps as a strawman.

Centre-left moderate here. I made it 5 minutes into the second episode before I switched off and haven't gone back. I loved West Wing and political journalism is a passion of mine, but that show is pure self-masturbatory schlock.

I hate that quotation and the attitude of historical revisionism that inspired it. America has sucked for most people since its inception. Only in the past 50 years or so has it become even tolerable for people who aren't white males. The good old days were bullshit.

a lot of those statistics are completely wrong. and the greatest fallacy in that logic is that all of a sudden politics has changed. It's always been like this, each generation just romanticizes the politics before them because they didn't live through it.

If anyone tries to argue that the U.S. is not the most culturally influential country in the world today, they are wrong. Blockbuster movies, top 40 music, fashion... you get the point.

The U.S. has some of the best universities in the world: Harvard, M.I.T, Yale, Columbia, etc. Some of the most important research in any field happens here, and people come from all over the world to study in the U.S.

Oh, and we kicked Great Britain's ass, the world's greatest superpower at the time, in two major wars when we were still just a bunch of fledgling colonies. The U.S. has many, many, faults, but there is absolutely an argument for it being the greatest country in the world.

EDIT: I want to clarify that I do not necessarily believe the U.S. is the greatest country in the world, but that there is an argument for it, and that the U.S. gets a lot of shit that it doesn't really deserve. Yeah, we have a lot of assholes who have no problem with innocent people dying as long as they can get themselves or their buddies rich or re-elected, but we also have a lot of great things going for us as well. A lot more great things, imo, than most other countries, and you can take that for what it's worth.

Oh, and we kicked Great Britain's ass, the world's greatest superpower at the time, in two major wars when we were still just a bunch of fledgling colonies.

Wha? We beat them in the revolution, mainly because they were busy elsewhere, but in what other war did this happen? If you're thinking of 1812, you may want to revisit the question of who kicked who's ass.

It's an accepted economic principle. It's due to frictional employment, which represents people between job, as well as some of the other types of unemployment. Frictional unemployment is not necessarily bad.